[material-ui][TextField] Handling long placeholder text

[aayush-makwana]

Hello MUI Community,

I'm looking for advice on how to manage placeholder truncation in MUI Input components like TextField. When using long placeholder texts, they often get truncated if the text exceeds the width of the input field. This issue is especially problematic on smaller screens or with resizable fields.

for large Text Field

for small Text Field

Are there MUI-specific techniques or settings that help display the full placeholder or clearly indicate it's been truncated (such as adding an ellipsis)?

or

Has anyone implemented dynamic adjustments of placeholder text in MUI based on the input field size or screen resolution?

Any MUI-focused solutions or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Search keywords:

[suraj-anthwal]

Hey @aayush-makwana ,

If I understood correctly, you need a way to handle large input text using material-ui library.
Here, in the snippet below I have added three types of input:

1. This is a static width text and add ellipsis to very long placeholder text.
2. This is a dynamic width text, where width is dependent on the provided placeholder.
3. This is also a dynamic width text, where width is dependent on the input provided by user. It changes input size when the user adds/removes a character.

Filename: App.js

import React from 'react';
import TextFieldComponent from './TextFieldComponent';
import { Box } from '@mui/material';

function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <header className="App-header">
        <Box
          sx={{
            display: 'flex', 
            flexDirection: 'column', 
            alignItems: 'center', 
            justifyContent: 'center', 
            minHeight: '100vh', 
            gap: 2, // Optional: adds space between the elements
            padding: 2
          }}
        >
          <TextFieldComponent label={'This is a static width text input with ellipsis to support long placeholder'} />
          <TextFieldComponent dynamicWidth={'placeholder'} label= {'This is a dynamic width text input. Width changes as you increase/decrease the placeholder text'} />
          <TextFieldComponent dynamicWidth={'input'} label= {'This is a dynamic width text input. Width changes as you type in the input'} />
        </Box>
      
      </header>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Filename: TextFieldComponent.js

import React, { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import {TextField,FormLabel, Typography } from '@mui/material';
import Box from '@mui/material/Box';

// Component to render a text field with dynamic width and label value
const TextFieldComponent = ({ dynamicWidth, label }) => {
  const [value, setValue] = React.useState('');
  const [inputWidth, setInputWidth] = useState(100);
  const spanRef = useRef(null);
  
  // Effect hook to update the input width based on the dynamic width if it equates to 'placeholder' only
  useEffect(() => {
    if (dynamicWidth && spanRef.current) {
      if(dynamicWidth === 'placeholder') {
        setInputWidth(spanRef.current.offsetWidth + 40);
      }
    }
  }, [dynamicWidth]);

  // Function to handle changes in the text field's value. It updates the value. Also based on dynamic width value it updates the input width conditionally.
  const handleChange = (event) => {
    setValue(event.target.value);
    if(dynamicWidth === 'input') {
      setInputWidth(40 + getTextWidth(value));
    }
  };

  // Function to calculate the width of a given text string by creating a temporary span element, calculating its width and then removing it from DOM.
  const getTextWidth = (text) => {
    // Create a hidden Typography component to measure the width
    const hiddenTypography = (
      <Typography
        variant="body1"
        style={{
          position: 'absolute',
          visibility: 'hidden'
        }}
      >
        {text}
      </Typography>
    );

    // Create a div element to render the hidden Typography component
    const div = document.createElement('div');
    document.body.appendChild(div);

    // Render the hidden Typography component to the div
    ReactDOM.render(hiddenTypography, div);

    // Get the width of the rendered Typography component
    const width = div.firstChild.offsetWidth;

    // Remove the div from the DOM
    document.body.removeChild(div);

    return width;
  }
  
  return (
    <Box sx={{ marginY: 2 ,display: 'flex', 
    flexDirection: 'column', 
    alignItems: 'center', 
    justifyContent: 'center',}}>
      {dynamicWidth && (
        <span
          ref={spanRef}
          style={{
            visibility: "hidden",
            position: "absolute",
            whiteSpace: "nowrap",
            fontFamily: "Roboto, Arial, sans-serif",
          }}
        >
          {label}
        </span>
      )}
      <FormLabel>{label}</FormLabel>
      <TextField
        label={label}
        variant="outlined"
        value={value}
        onChange={handleChange}
        sx={{ width: dynamicWidth ? inputWidth : 'auto' }}
      />
    </Box>
  );
};

export default TextFieldComponent;

Hope this helps!

[ZeeshanTamboli]

Please provide a minimal reproduction. It helps us troubleshoot. A live example would be perfect. This StackBlitz sandbox template may be a good starting point.

[github-actions]

Since the issue is missing key information and has been inactive for 7 days, it has been automatically closed. If you wish to see the issue reopened, please provide the missing information.